Buenos Aires: Argentina has extended a six-month-old freeze on fuel prices for 45 days via a resolution published Thursday in the official gazette.

The Domestic Commerce Secretariat’s resolution says the measure is aimed at “reinforcing transparency” in the marketing of goods and services, ensuring supplies and protecting consumers’ rights.

The measure states that the price of fuel sold at service stations may not exceed the maximum price April 9 of this year.

The freeze does not prevent gas stations whose prices were cheaper on that date from raising them by up to 20 percent to bring them into line with other stations where prices were higher.

It is part of a series of decisions by the Argentine government aimed at keeping inflation in check ahead of legislative elections scheduled for Oct 27.

The Domestic Commerce Secretariat has signed price agreements in 2013 with supermarkets and appliance stores and has raised subsidies on basic goods such as bread.

Even so, inflation has not come down and remains at 10.5 percent, according to official figures. Private economists, meanwhile, put the inflation rate at 25.2 percent.